Catching Up on Memes - Pondering with a Purpose - Practical or Not?

This Thursday's Pondering with a Purpose (hosted by the wonderful Brenda Youngerman) is putting forth the phrase to ponder
Practical or Not?
My house is filled with things that aren't practical but which, at one time, I hoped would be the answer to problems I was having.  Crates to store things in that just end up holding a variety of odds and ends.  A dozen large lidded bins that were supposed to hold things to go into storage but instead held things that went into storage and never came out or have become a home for ten million and three toys that we're just trying to keep off the living room floor rather than being put away where they belong.
 The biggest on the list are the dry erase boards that I bought for the boys' To-Do/Chore lists.

Teddy's board, written on by him

Pete's board, written on by Teddy

I put the boards low enough that the boys could reach them and erase what they'd done every day.  I thought it would help make things fun for them, give them a chance to take responsibility for their chores, let them see things go away rather than add to it.  Instead, it gave Pete a place to make a mess.
Within a day, Peter had erased everything that I'd written, then scribble all over not only the board itself by also on the cork board that I'd been planning on pinning important information to for him (as you can see in the picture above).  Now, I'm thinking that instead of putting it on the inside of a door that I can't close (since it's door to the pantry and inside the pantry is where we have our cat's litter box) I should have put it inside another door that I could close so Pete wouldn't see it as a drawing location.  Unfortunately, I also know myself.  If I were to move it to such a location, it would be out of sight, out of mind and it wouldn't get used.
Then again, it's not getting used now.
So was it a practical thing for me to have put up?  I've still got hope that it will get used.  Maybe I can put another dry-erase surface that I'll let Pete color on himself.  But for the moment, it's not as practical as I'd like.  And I need to work on changing that.